Bath are planning an appeal against the RFU’s decision of denying Stephen Donald’s work permit application.

Bath have signed the Kiwi flyhalf on a two-year contract, but the deal hit a roadblock after his work permit was denied because he has no ancestry ties to Britain and doesn’t fulfill the requirement of having started a Test for the All Blacks in the last 15 months.

It is believed that Bath remain determined on getting Donald and are working on a plan to save the deal.

They will argue that a bad run of injuries last year took the 27-year-old out of All Blacks contention, and a lack of game time was also due to being Dan Carter’s back-up. Bath will also note that the new rules that led to the RFU’s verdict against Donald were only implemented after they had begun negotiations with him.